Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Jonathan Eriksen: Superannuation expert on the retirement age and superannuation funding

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Jonathan Eriksen: Superannuation expert on the retirement age and superannuation funding · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Yesterday's State of the Nation address didn't really tell us
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: anything that we didn't already know, but there was one
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: comment that made everyone go, oh, he's going there and
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: made everybody prick up their ears. First, to support New
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Zealander's financial security against the backdrop of an aging society
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: and an inevitable list in the retirement age, an inevitable
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: lift in the retirement age. So if super needs to change,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: how should we do it? Jonathan Erickson, as a retirement
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: expert with fifty years of experienced superannuation policy, he joins her.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Now are the Jonathan yeah moo and Andrew as.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: The Prime Minister? Right, the raising of the retirement age
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  Speaker 1: is inevitable.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: No, no, with respect to the Prime Minister, there's a
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: better way of doing it, which is to change the
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: tax ranging from TT to ee T, which means making
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: contributions exempt for the employer and having a very low
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: rate of tax on the investment income and then tax
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: and benefit. And by doing that we grow our superannuation pot,
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: get a lot more like Australia in fact, and mean
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: that we can keep the retirement age of sixty five,
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  Speaker 2: which is clearly better for Pacific Islanders. Iri and a
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: lot of hard working people whose backs give out before
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: age sixty five, so we don't even have to raise
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: the age. And the beauty of the system although it
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: all defer tax for a while, means you don't have
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: to change too many things and you can implement it quickly.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: So it seems simple to you. How come the government
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: doesn't know about this idea? And have you told them
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: about it?
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  Speaker 2: I've tried to for years, but they don't want to listen.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: They're said in their ways, they're very short term focused.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: They're trying to win the next election, and I could
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: assure Christopher Luxen this is not the way to do it.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: I would suggest that actually even suggesting that they're going
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: to raise the retirement age would make them lose the election.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: I thought it was quite a bit. I thought he
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: was taking quite a risk to say this.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: Now, well, President Macronz had to change the prime ministers
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: in France three times in a few months because they
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: were trying to put the retirement age up to sixty
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: four in France.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so if it is so, look if it is
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: so inevitable, And honestly, I've been saying this since Bulger
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: actually raised the age from sixty to sixty five. I thought, eventually,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: we're not going to be able to afford this if
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: it has been so inevitable, when is the right time
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: to take the chance to actually introduce this while also
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: winning an election.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Well, the time is now. The whole world is in
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: a state of flux. You've got countries not knowing whether
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: they're an authoritarian regime or a democracy. And you know,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: all's all over the place except town here, and we
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: need to get on and get New Zealand better to
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: the retirement savings in Australia. I just happened to be
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: in Parliament buildings in Canberra yesterday and looked at the
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: portraits of Bob Hawk and Paul Keating. And in nineteen
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: ninety one they introduced their compulsory super with a three
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: percent employer contribution levy. And now they've got trillions in
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: super in Australia and that's funding all their infrastructure and
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: a lot of their development in tourism and other things
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: which we desperately need to grow our country.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Jonathan, I got to go, but can you just tell
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: me what EET stands for?
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: Exempt? Exempt text? So you exempt the contribution income, you
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: exempt the investment income and you tax the end benefit
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: and by taxing it you actually offset the costs of
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: New Zealand superannuation to some extent without changing the retirement age.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Okay, Jonathan, I thank you so very very much. It's
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: News Talks MP For more from early edition with Ryan Bride.
• 4:00
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• 4:04
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